[BotB] Chapter 16

'I'm ruined. In this situation...!'

Instinctively, her legs moved. Sohwa flipped her body, exposing her belly, alternately swishing her left and right tail.

"Ho ho, you're quite cute."

Miho, who had been covering her mouth and laughing, suddenly changed her expression and growled.

"Were you the one who killed my husband yesterday?"

"No, no! I didn't even meet him!"

"Really?"

Miho continued to speak as she scrutinized Sohwa.

"I've been marking this mountain as my territory for a few days now. Don't you have a nose?"

"So this mountain is now yours?"

"Yes. I've marked it all around with my scent, didn't you know?"

Oh dear. A rolling stone gathers no moss, but this one had found its match. It was a disaster. No matter how much she exposed her belly, this female fox was determined to drive her out of the mountain.

In the form of a pale and small red fox, Sohwa was unable to confront Miho. Quickly, she transformed into a human, put her hands on her hips, and approached Miho.

"As the longstanding owner of this mountain...!"

She was about to shout, 'I am the one who has been living here for a long time!' when Miho suddenly covered her nose and scowled.

"Oh, the smell!"

"...Huh?"

Miho staggered with a pained expression, not hesitating to fan the air as if Sohwa had a strange smell.

"Why are you doing that? Are you saying I smell?"

Surprised, Sohwa sniffed herself and approached Miho, who started swearing and raised her claws.

"Get the hell out of here!"

Suddenly, sharp nails flashed in front of her eyes.

"Ouch!"

Her arm stung. Her fine silk gown was torn, and blood flowed from her arm where Miho had scratched.

Sohwa was a timid fox who had never successfully hunted. Her first direct attack completely took her aback.

Her heart was pounding so hard that she couldn't even confront the strange behavior of a first encounter.

"Why are you carrying a datura flower?"

"A datura flower?"

What was that? Rolling her eyes, Sohwa suddenly touched the small sachet hanging from her waist. It was a sachet that Dohwi had carefully made with herbs that had a good scent.

"Don't you know it's a poisonous plant that dulls the sense of smell?!"

"What? This isn't that!"

"Enough, get out! Leave this mountain right now!"

With Miho's repeated attacks and raised claws, Sohwa was startled and hid behind a tree. She knew territorial disputes were brutal, but Miho's momentum was so fierce that she couldn't even dare speak.

"You stink!"

"What smell...?"

Miho growled fiercely at the trembling Sohwa as if she were the worst enemy.

"The smell of a male tiger in heat!"

Ahh! Seeing Miho threatening with her teeth bared, Sohwa ran away on the spot. Unaware that her tail had come out, she panicked, and Miho shouted after her.

"If I see you again, I'll kill you!"

//I did a bit of research, and there’s no flower with botanical properties that can cause anosmia. It would more likely be due to a neurotoxin affecting the olfactory system or an allergic reaction rather than the flower itself. Also, no exact transliteration for 아재비꽃 exists. It just means ‘Ajaebi’ -- fictional poisonous flower, but I can surmise that it suppresses smell, so I chose to translate it as datura which has chemical toxins (and I imagine would be found on a mountain).

04. Better Than Being Alone

"Hah, hah...."

Sohwa, who had run back to her house in a frenzy, could only calm down once she had jumped over the gate. The unfamiliar female fox, Miho, was even more terrifying than the tiger she had never met.

'She wouldn't follow me here, would she?'

Glancing back, Sohwa suddenly realized she had lost one of the floral shoes she cherished. But she didn't have the energy to go back and find it.

'I can't smell, I can't hunt, I can't protect my territory!'

She was desolate at the thought of leaving Ihwang Mountain, her home, and didn't know where or how to live. At high noon, with the sun shining brightly, a completely despondent Sohwa entered the house.

"...Huh?"

While wiping her tears, her gaze suddenly shifted to the cherry tree in front of the living room. The ground was strangely lumpy. Was it because of the fallen leaves? It seemed more scorched.

'Come to think of it, Dohwi buried something there.'

As if possessed, Sohwa approached the cherry tree.

The ground, which had always been smooth and clean, was oddly bulging. It wasn't a mark she had made.

The ground was dyed pitch black. It looked like ink or like blood had flowed. There was also familiar animal fur.

Sohwa examined the fur with a stern face.

The well-ripened barley, or the sunset-colored fur, was definitely that of a red fox. Although the color was different, she could never forget the proud, soft texture that she herself had.

Sohwa frantically began to dig. It was not buried deep.

She first touched the soft fur and then the hard muscles underneath.

It was a dead fox. A red fox, brutally mauled and killed, was buried in her yard. The eyes of the deceased fox were wide open in fear, its tongue hanging out, and its fur was soaked in blood.